Sarjeant Happenings: Selection of works receive conservation treatment ahead of gallery reopening

The Sarjeant Gallery reopening is scheduled for November 9. Photo / Mike Tweed

Curiosity, the popular painting of two women on a ladder peeking over a wall, is ready and waiting for the reopening of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery this November.

The painting by Eugen Von Blaas is among a selection of works that have received conservation treatment thanks to funds donated to the gallery by the B. and C. Hewett Charitable Trust.

Curator of collections Jennifer Taylor said part of the inner frame of Curiosity had slipped and issues with the canvas in one corner required it to be restretched; the frame was also cleaned.

“It’s just wonderful to be able to get this work completed as a result of the trust’s financial support,” Taylor said.

Lead trustee Jeremy Goodwin said the gift was part of the trustees’ intention to make impactful donations in areas with which the benefactors, Basil and Cynthia Hewett, were associated. The Hewetts, who set up the trust in 1988, were Jeremy Goodwin’s great-uncle and aunt.

The Hewett family has connections with Whanganui that go back several generations. James Duff Hewett and his wife Ellen Ann settled on a farm in Brunswick in the 1850s. Ellen became well-known for a book she wrote about her life as an early settler entitled Looking Back or Personal Reminiscences by the Widow of A New Zealand Pioneer Settler which was first published in 1911. Goodwin has given a copy of this fascinating book to the Sarjeant Gallery library.

“Essentially, they were a military family from the United Kingdom and became a farming family in New Zealand. Basil and Cynthia lived near Cambridge and had a dairy farm there. They were some of the first people to covenant part of their land which had native bush on it,” Goodwin said.

The B. and C. Hewett Charitable Trust has funded wetland work in Northland, King Country and Coromandel. The trust also funded the restoration of the organ in St Andrew’s Church, Cambridge.

Goodwin attended Whanganui Collegiate, as did many of his relatives, and was one of the first students to enrol in Collegiate’s history of art programme.

“I did it for two years and used to spend a bit of time going to galleries to look at paintings of the type we were studying in the history of art. The Sarjeant was probably the first gallery that I went to and spent significant time in.”

Two years ago Goodwin heard about the redevelopment project and contacted Taylor, who is in charge of the collection and its conservation.

“I thought, in relation to the reopening of the gallery, they’re going to have a beautifully restored old section and a lovely new building, what could we do that might have some small impact?”

Curiosity by Eugen Von Blaas is one of the gallery’s well-loved older works and will be displayed in the opening show.

On Taylor’s advice, they decided to fund the conservation treatment of some of the artworks that would be displayed in the reopening suite of exhibitions. The conservation has been done by Auckland-based Studio Carolina Izzo and includes the treatment of picture frames and paintwork.

“Jennifer has said to me a number of times that the frames protect and enable the pictures to be displayed. So they’re an integral part of the work of art. We looked at some of the pictures and the frames they had at Sarjeant on the Quay and saw that there were a number that needed work, including one of their flagship works, Curiosity.”

The other paintings include Portrait of a Lady in a Landscape by Derwent Lees, Thomas and Joseph with Red Chair and Piano by Michael Smither, Zinnias by Dorothy Richmond and Requiem, 1973 by Ralph Hōtere.

The trustees are delighted with the result and have gone on to fund the conservation of works by Whanganui painter Vivian Smith.

The new collection storage facility in the redeveloped gallery at Pukenamu Queen’s Park will provide a stable, climate-controlled environment, enabling the Sarjeant to preserve artworks and prevent the degradation of materials.

Thanks to the generosity of benefactors such as the B. and C. Hewett Charitable Trust conservation work done now will have a lasting impact.